few but and good afternoon this is a little bit the the initial them deep-sea mining

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is not a big hit it doesn't draw the biggest crowds um but that's that's exactly the issue actually so mn um my name is Marcus Ryman by

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UCT creatures from the deep sea and the Director of to be 21 Academy which is M a Department of tis monomers contemporary a contemporary art collection

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and foundation based in Vienna in 2012 we decided to will create a program that is purely focused on you and on the environment with a special highlight on the

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oceans and that has become the TBA 21 academy um it is not just an artistic and is it's

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really trying to bridge the gap between art science exploration and conservation and that is what

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after a long time brought to deep-sea mining so I know I've seen a couple of uh familiar faces so I know that a couple of you know about deep-sea minor but Wells does know about deep-sea mining please yeah OK so I'm preaching to the choir uh that so that the problem so as more there's there's not a lot of them to say but I I I just tell you quickly how we how we got to this place and what we intend to do and why I think that in a static dimension in this whole conversation is is an important 1 in this static and cultural 1 and a couple years back we found on the mission the website mission blue is an organization run by severe URLs of euros coined her deepness you've all probably know where as she is a legendary marine biologist and and on her website mission rule we found and the post about the International Seabed Authority fantastic maps and very very suspicious little office in in Kingston and and we are cells why is a United Nations Office United Nations body hidden in an downtown Kingston uh and um we as an organization we have a long standing history with Kingston we have we run a them a marine protected area in Kingston a community-driven marine protected area and add the next time that we were in Kingston we took an artist with us I mean Lincoln and we might know from projects from the house to go to bed and and we went to the International Seabed Authority and had a little conversation with them and and it turns out that um the International Seabed Authority as a set is a United Nations body and they have this annual meeting and they are tasked with the administration and the distribution of the resources on the seabed the which is common heritage of humankind in and the high seas so so can we leave understood relatively quickly that the that the organization itself is a rather complicated in terms of and that that it's a very closely tied between the policy makers and the mining industry some so far them deep-sea mining is a fiction and it hasn't it hasn't happened it is um yet to be proven that it can happen and that it can happen at a profit so we're talking about the reality is that we're talking about mining at 45 kilometers deep in the ocean and we're talking about an a soft layer very soft there so if we say the sea bed it's not it's not too and the hard concrete layer where we can actually drive and whatever that kind of make the machines that you need and you pick up the little nodules aware that we're all after this is an extremely complicated um mechanism that we're trying to tackle here and and this is also is an environment you have to you have to imagine that has a sedimentation rate of 1 millimeter um in per per square meter in a in a very very uh slow time and and all of a sudden we're talking about um picking up dread dredging this that the ground picking up the novel nodules pumping it up to the and to the surface and sitting out they did minerals and then dropping it back down so you can you can imagine what this does to an environment that is hardly explored with the sedimentation rate as I said before is an is bare minimum um and this is uh the this is happening for this will this is supposed to happen and so the question the question for us is how do we engage with this and wide as an art organization should engage with this M and uh we we came to the conclusion that we should and the way that we did it was so we applied as an observer to be an observer the International Seabed Authority and for whatever reason we were granted to be the observed do we're granted the observer status with the 1st art organization ever to be an observer at the International Seabed Authority and now um we have the right to come and visit the annual meetings and intervene in these annual meetings and I think here when I went there um last year is um is exactly the possibility for an organization like ours to intervene and I was let's say at least surprised when I got there last year um that the I was there for 10 days I attended all sessions and I think the word ocean was mentioned twice usually we're talking about paragraph 154 should be would not

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should always should it's a it's all about terminologies about paragraphs it's it and it is not about the the and the bigger picture it is and this is exactly where where I think the the artistic intervention becomes and necessary and not in terms of the figurative intervention where we say OK we make visible what is on the seabed which I think is is very and important because it is very much out of sight out of mind and everybody thinks that they can do whatever they want but and I think also in a descriptive way them in a way that there is also the possibility right now tool to change something in our behavior so as a said before this is an extremely difficult extremely dangerous and yet to be discovered what the impact actually might be and um is um undertaking um but for some reason the the promise the financial promise of a deep-sea mining is so big that against all better judgment we willing to take the risk of disturbing an environment and an ecosystem that we know nothing about to an extent that it might be a reversible and I think here is exactly the the possibility for

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up for an art institution tool tool um to elaborated uh the consequences the mechanisms and and the and the responsibilities of because um you must understand that the International Seabed Authority the way it is is not a desirable place to be for any for any atom technocrat bureaucrat or scientists it is usually something that you would rather passed through as quickly as possible but you're the 1 that is that is asked to take the decisions on something that has major consequences for the uh for the health of the oceans so bearing this in mind and we um like a set we went to the International Seabed Authority we we looked at the system that and M. and it is it is striking that next to the decision makers you have um you have members of the mining industry so so the the M. intertwinement between policy and industry is what is that there is hardly any barrier and if there is a very it's it's very you know it's very flexible some um lot why do we need to talk about this them because I think I think it possible that the the the opportunity here is really a tool to take a step back and um tool to take a look at a couple of the larger questions that are and that are connected to this this 1 is the common heritage of humankind what does that mean and what does it mean for us right now I just means is that is that there is a reserve on minerals that will be taken at some point and that is the 1 thing um and the the other thing is really what is this urge that drives us to open up front here after frontier after frontier after frontier so um yeah I am an I think that's it for me I think if you have any questions please ask but to an that would be the

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and the I think you all experts here of most of you know as I understand it ocean and thank you and how did you manage to get that observer status and on what are you actually you don't know you see the wire hot and what you possibilities um apart from works of to intervene broken and then the 2 things I think um so what how

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did we get the observer status we applied we applied and we have a we have a track record of all of you know what I mean we have we started a marine protected area and in Kingston we we had a marine protected area uh supporting system in um and Costa Rica so that there was a track record of these kind of interventions even as an art organization on the other hand what our possibilities are I think our possibilities in his tool and to show up and to insert a certain kind of language that is has no space there and I think exactly this this um and the opening up of this cultural space and a descriptive space a but also the the bigger picture which is not confined by terminology not confined by paragraphs is is the possibility that we have and that's that's been tool the bureaucratic system of the International Seabed some authority out words it is a it is really the the them and communications platform that an art organization has the the thank you

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thanks lot markers for this inspiring at all and so I think it's also a nice that you refer to this common heritage of mankind principle that this really enshrined as so very rock solid legal um principal in the International Convention on the Law of the Sea so saying that all these minerals belong to all of us with our common heritage but it somewhere hidden and it's not very prominent in international politics so how can I really help to to bridge this gap between this really um very remote political process on the 1 hand and on the other hand also if we as human beings owning all this heritage of and what role cannot play then what is your false wrong I think I think I'm 1 as an art organization the interesting point is to be take even a step back and say how come that there that the common heritage of mankind is the distribution and the administration of resources you know and these

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resources will be taken at some point so why is it seems that our common heritage them is has only think that the only thing it has to do with it is is and economic somehow know them and and I think this is uh this is the starting point for a for ourselves nor organization to elaborate on that to create discourse around this idea what is the common what can the common heritage B and I think and I think even a step further back is that you that you look at the law of the is and what it was intended in its I think in its intention was 1 of the most beautiful um and judicial ideas that ever happened to where the result was compromise after compromise after compromise in we have what we have and that's that's the 1 thing and the the other thing is really the way that you can elaborate on so many different levels of um as an art organization I think and we we all face the challenge of not of of what and is supposedly the attention span and all that uh that everything has to be 3 to 5 minutes if it doesn't make the one minute mark then it's like you and it's gone except of in the art world uh funnily enough if you go

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into a gallery the film that can be super complex kid doesn't have to be you know it doesn't have to be linear in the narrative it can be it can be very and they're like a so can be very complex it's it's no problem at all that you look at something for 20 to 45 minutes M and this is possible because it is in in our context so I think this is really this is the possibility that art-house nowadays tool elaborated unfold unpack these very complicated issues in them in ways that that doesn't fit into 2 minutes or 3 minutes or more 90 seconds the the hi and I was wondering what do you think that this is also mappable onto the digital realm because it strikes me in a metaphoric way that the way that you know the deep seas accessible to you ought to the art world to and is very similar to the way that that the web of the large troves of infrastructure there except uh accessible to the public so the way that Don did you try to make certain aspects of the accessibility of the of of resources of infrastructures and there are some democratic and non-democratic accessibility visible is something that also happens in the digital realm in a weighted on the large corporations or on national states with with a certain status have access to it so this I think is something that could also figure into the work of of the academy right yeah absolutely no I think I think it's but between the ocean and then and the and digital

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rounders there's there's huge similarities and in 1 is the on regulated space that is both of them are um the the other is really the the kind of the platforms that take ownership of something and then you have very similar you have at the relationship between a nation and a company that then take ownership of of these resources there is supposedly for all of us so this is the dissimilarity there's is nearly immediate I think it them on the other hand it also offers space for and for big collaborative efforts for and for community-driven for crowdsourced efforts it hasn't it hasn't been done yet but

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um theoretically there's nothing and and there's nothing there is nothing to keep us from getting together and putting together 500 to 750 thousand dollars to buy a stake in the seabed on the seabed and we would have to apply through country at the International Seabed Authority would have to prove that we can do research in the we would and published or this reaches the research with the International Seabed Authority but there is absolutely the opportunity to do so and there is the opportunity to actually get ahead of the curve and then you know you could open source all of this and an environmental impact research and all of that are require root server for example that the thank you thank you any

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more questions on this very special approach I think take the time to come into exchanger OK I when is an X and I must commit and not very familiar with that with of all the organizational infrastructure everything but whatever understand uh is that you know that you get the permission to attend these meetings you mentioned that you get so to say a foot in the door I am and what I and next steps would allow how do you plan to push this thing this idea further along from now on them but this I mean

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there's a number there's a number of uh um of strategies there's a uh there's the collaborative strategy there isn't there are many many organizations working on these topics that experts in the field but uh and but you usually working or whatever and singular models you know I mean it's a really be the intent behind and our approach is really to to break down the boundaries between disciplines

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and and be able to communicate across these disciplines and through to a to a wider audience um the the possibility that we have now and it is in their there and the number of possible so I would I would I would really like to do is created and curated a series of artists interventions in the International Seabed Authority because now we do have the possibility to have a speaking interventions in the in the General Assembly and and and the the it would be fantastic if and if informed artists like you will see later on on the main stage Trevor pregnant for example was and who knows a lot and understands these kind of complex issues and would wouldn't give lecture performances in the General Assembly this would be on our bill you know and and this is this is just push like a said the languages pushed its to push the understanding and that is the 1 thing on the on the other side uh there are and there are the

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possibilities for side events so this is what we're what we're looking at today and or this year and is to have a large public interface between between the International Seabed Authority and the public in Kingston that knows very very little about the realities that there and there's a there's a European Union program in those words and blue Atlantis and we're doing a series of works with with a group of artists called inhabitants on that because I think uh I think both locally as in the European Union is very little known on and on this program and so it is it is a twofold it's between public and out advocacy and outreach and and really um that within within the institution the I think that some

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minutes left for a final questions if there are any board I'm sure they everybody can can make you after from him after the next session of course because the next session as as well tackling the submarine issue and the deep c and ocean OK this is

Inhaltliche Metadaten

Could the future of the planet depend upon our response to the imminent mining operations about to be unleashed in the depths of the oceans, and how can an art organisation engage on a structural level with a complex issue like this, avoiding to be purely figurative or just a communications tool.